Another Record for Team Steam

The British Steam Car team wasn’t content to pack up and head home after breaking the oldest record in all of motorsports. No, these guys had to fire up the world’s largest tea kettle for one more run at the record book, and damned if they didn’t set another new benchmark.

After setting a land speed record for the measured mile in a steam-powered car on Tuesday, driver Charles Burnett III handed the 25-foot-long streamliner Inspiration over to test driver Don Wales. Wales promptly set a new record for the measured kilometer, hitting an average speed of 148.308 over two runs across a dry lake bed in southern California.

“What a great feeling,” Wales said in a statement today. “The car felt better than ever. We peaked over 150 mph and the car was handling beautifully.”

Burnett streaked across the desert near Andrews Edwards Air Force Base in a steam-powered car at a two-way average speed of 139.843 mph. That’s not very fast in the grand scheme of things, but it was enough to eclipse the record Fred Marriott set in 1906 when he went 127.659 mph in a Stanley Steamer Rocket. The crew made a few tweaks before Wales strapped himself in for his run.

“We took some of the inhibitors from the boilers for this run and it helped get a bit more speed out of the car,” project manager Matt Candy said. “The weather was perfect today and the air temperature was just 62 degrees Fahrenheit, the team turned around the car in an amazing 30 minutes which is their quickest ever. Don has worked so hard with the team, it’s fantastic that he should go home with a record too.”

Check out our coverage of Team Steam here and get a look at the car’s drivetrain here.

Photo of the British Steam Car preparing for a run: British Steam Car team.